March 12, 2006The Vendetta Behind ‘V for Vendetta’By DAVE ITZKOFFTHE most vivid characters in Alan Moore’s graphic novels areantiheroes of ambiguous morality and identity: costumed avengers likeRorschach, the disturbed street vigilante of “Watchmen,” or thecrusader known only by the letter V, who commits catastrophic acts ofterrorism in the dystopian tale “V for Vendetta.”

With inventions like these, and a body of writing that spans nearlythree decades, Mr. Moore, a 52-year-old native of Northampton,England, distinguished himself as a darkly philosophical voice in themedium of comic books – a rare talent whose work can sell solely onthe strength of his name. But if Mr. Moore had his way today, hisname would no longer appear on almost any of the graphic novels withwhich he is most closely associated. “I don’t want anything more todo with these works,” he said in a recent telephoneinterview, “because they were stolen from me – knowingly stolen fromme.”

In Mr. Moore’s account of his career, the villains are clearlydefined: they are the mainstream comics industry – particularly DCComics, the American publisher of “Watchmen” and “V for Vendetta” –which he believes has hijacked the properties he created, and theAmerican film business, which has distorted his writing beyondrecognition. To him, the movie adaptation of “V for Vendetta,” whichopens on Friday, is not the biggest platform yet for his ideas: it isfurther proof that Hollywood should be avoided at all costs. “I’veread the screenplay,” Mr. Moore said. “It’s rubbish.”

Mr. Moore has never been shy about expressing himself.With “Watchmen,” a multilayered epic from 1986-87 (illustrated byDave Gibbons) about a team of superheroes in an era of rampant crimeand nuclear paranoia – and again with “V for Vendetta” (illustratedby David Lloyd), published in America in 1988-89, about an enigmaticfreedom fighter opposing a totalitarian British regime – Mr. Moorehelped prove that graphic novels could be a vehicle for sophisticatedstorytelling. “Alan was one of the first writers of our generation,of great courage and great literary skill,” said Paul Levitz, thepresident and publisher of DC Comics. “You could watch him stretchingthe boundaries of the medium.”

But by 1989, Mr. Moore had severed his ties with DC. The publishersays he objected to its decision to label its adult-themed comics(including some of his own) as “Suggested for Mature Readers.” Mr.Moore says he was objecting to language in his contracts that wouldgive him back the rights to “Watchmen” and “V for Vendetta” when theywent out of print – language that he says turned out to bemeaningless, because DC never intended to stop reprinting eitherbook. “I said, ‘Fair enough,’ ” he recalls. ” ‘You have managed tosuccessfully swindle me, and so I will never work for you again.’ “

Mr. Levitz said that such so-called reversion clauses routinelyappear in comic book contracts, and that DC has honored all of itsobligations to Mr. Moore. “I don’t think Alan was dissatisfied at thetime,” Mr. Levitz said. “I think he was dissatisfied several yearslater.”

Mr. Lloyd, the illustrator of “V for Vendetta,” also found itdifficult to sympathize with Mr. Moore’s protests. When he and Mr.Moore sold their film rights to the graphic novel, Mr. Lloydsaid: “We didn’t do it innocently. Neither myself nor Alan thought wewere signing it over to a board of trustees who would look after itlike it was the Dead Sea Scrolls.”

Mr. Moore recognizes that his senses of justice and proportion mayseem overdeveloped. “It is important to me that I should be able todo whatever I want,” he said. “I was kind of a selfish child, whoalways wanted things his way, and I’ve kind of taken that over intomy relationship with the world.”

Today, he resides in the sort of home that every gothic adolescentdreams of, one furnished with a library of rare books, antique gold-adorned wands and a painting of the mystical Enochian tables used byDr. John Dee, the court astrologer of Queen Elizabeth I. He shunscomic-book conventions, never travels outside England and is a firmbeliever in magic as a “science of consciousness.” “I am what HarryPotter grew up into,” he said, “and it’s not a pretty sight.”

Actually, he more closely resembles the boy-wizard’s half-giantfriend Hagrid, with his bushy, feral beard and intense gaze, butthose closest to Mr. Moore say his intimidating exterior isdeceptive. “Because he looks like a wild man, people assume that hemust be one,” said the artist Melinda Gebbie, Mr. Moore’s fiancée andlongtime collaborator. “He’s frightening to people because he doesn’tseem to take the carrot, and he’s fighting to maintain an integritythat they don’t understand.”

After he left DC Comics, he spent the 1990’s working his way from oneindependent publisher to the next, ultimately arriving at WildstormStudios, owned by the comics artist Jim Lee. There, Mr. Moore wasgiven his own imprint, called America’s Best Comics, where hecontinued to write such pioneering and popular titles as “The Leagueof Extraordinary Gentlemen,” about a proto-superhero team ofVictorian literary characters including Allan Quatermain, CaptainNemo and the Invisible Man.

DC Comics purchased Wildstorm, in 1998, expecting that Mr. Moorewould not tolerate the arrangement. “We did the deal on theassumption that Alan would be gone the day it was signed,” said Mr.Levitz. But Mr. Moore’s loyalty to his artists trumped his aversionto his former employers, and he stayed put. “It seemed easier to bitethe bullet meself,” he said.

In 2001, the first film adaptation of one of Mr. Moore’s graphicnovels arrived in theaters. “From Hell,” distributed by 20th CenturyFox, was based on his extensively researched account of the Jack theRipper murders, a 572-page black-and-white title illustrated by EddieCampbell. Mr. Moore had no creative participation in the film, andhappily so. “There was no way that I would be able to be fair to it,”he said. “I did not wish to be connected with it, and regarded it assomething separate to my work. In retrospect, this was kind of anaïve attitude.”

Two years later, when 20th Century Fox released a movie versionof “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen,” the screenwriter LarryCohen and the producer Martin Poll sued the studio, charging thatelements of the film had been plagiarized from their work. Though thefilm, which was one of the year’s costliest flops, differeddrastically from the graphic novel, the lawsuit nonetheless claimedthat the “Extraordinary Gentlemen” comics had been created asa “smokescreen” to cover up the theft.

Mr. Moore found the accusations deeply insulting, and the 10 hours oftestimony he was compelled to give, via video link, even more so. “IfI had raped and murdered a schoolbus full of retarded children afterselling them heroin,” he said, “I doubt that I would have been cross-examined for 10 hours.” When the case was settled out of court, Mr.Moore took it as an especially bitter blow, believing that he hadbeen denied the chance to exonerate himself.

Since then, he has refused to allow any more movies to be made fromwork he controls. In the case of work whose rights he does notcontrol, he has refused credits on any film adaptations, and hasgiven his share of option money and royalties to the artists whoillustrated the original comic books. That position is so radicalthat though his colleagues say they respect his position, few in thefilm industry can understand it.

“It’s very simple, but they don’t seem to hear it,” said JohnO’Neill, the illustrator of “The League of ExtraordinaryGentlemen.” “They just gravitate towards offering more money.”

Last year, when Mr. Moore received a phone call from Larry Wachowski –who, with his brother, Andy, had written and directed the “Matrix”movies – to discuss the “V for Vendetta” film that the Wachowskiswere writing and producing for Warner Brothers, Mr. Moore felt he hadmade it clear that he did not want to be involved in the project.

“I explained to him that I’d had some bad experiences in Hollywood,”Mr. Moore said. “I didn’t want any input in it, didn’t want to see itand didn’t want to meet him to have coffee and talk about ideas forthe film.”

But at a press conference on March 4, 2005, to announce the start ofproduction on the “V for Vendetta” film, the producer Joel Silversaid Mr. Moore was “very excited about what Larry had to say andLarry sent the script, so we hope to see him sometime before we’re inthe U.K.” This, Mr. Moore said, “was a flat lie.”

“Given that I’d already published statements saying I wasn’tinterested in the film, it actually made me look duplicitous,” hesaid.

In a telephone interview, Mr. Silver said he had misconstrued ameeting he had with Mr. Moore and Dave Gibbons nearly 20 years ago,when Mr. Silver first acquired the film rights to “Watchmen” and “Vfor Vendetta.” (Mr. Silver no longer owns the rights to “Watchmen,”though Warner Brothers is still planning an adaptation.) “I had anice little lunch with them,” he said, “and Alan was odd, but he wasenthusiastic and encouraging us to do this. I had foolishly thoughtthat he would continue feeling that way today, not realizing that hewouldn’t.”

Mr. Silver said he called Mr. Moore to apologize for his statement atthe press conference, but that Mr. Moore was unmoved. “He said tome, ‘I’m going to hang up on you if you don’t stop talking to me,’ “Mr. Silver recalled. “It was like a conversation with a taperecording.”

Through his editors at DC Comics (like Warner Brothers, a subsidiaryof Time Warner), Mr. Moore insisted that the studio publicly retractMr. Silver’s remarks. When no retraction was made, Mr. Moore onceagain quit his association with DC (and Wildstorm along with it), anddemanded that his name be removed from the “V for Vendetta” film, aswell as from any of his work that DC might reprint in the future.

The producers of “V for Vendetta” reluctantly agreed to strip Mr.Moore’s name from the film’s credits, a move that saddened Mr. Lloyd,who still endorses the film. “Alan and I were like Laurel and Hardywhen we worked on that,” Mr. Lloyd said. “We clicked. I felt badabout not seeing a credit for that team preserved, but there you go.”

DC, however, said it would be inappropriate to take Mr. Moore’s nameoff of any of his works. “This isn’t an adaptation of the work, it’snot a derivative work, it’s not a work that’s been changed in anyfashion from how he was happy with it a minute ago,” said Mr. Levitz.

Still, some DC editors hope that Mr. Moore might return. “He remainsa good friend, and I would work with him again in a heartbeat,” saidKaren Berger, the executive editor of the DC imprint Vertigo, in an e-mail statement.

But Mr. Moore does not seem likely to change his mind this time. Forone thing, his schedule is almost entirely consumed with other comicsprojects, including a new volume of “The League of ExtraordinaryGentlemen,” to be released in late 2006 or early 2007 by the Americanpublisher Top Shelf Productions. This summer, Mr. Moore said, TopShelf will also be publishing “Lost Girls,” his 16-years-in-the-making collaboration with Ms. Gebbie, a series of unrepentantlypornographic adventures told by the grown-up incarnations of WendyDarling of “Peter Pan,” Alice of “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”and Dorothy Gale of “The Wizard of Oz.” “I refuse to call it erotica,because that just sounds like pornography for people who’ve got moremoney,” Mr. Moore said. “It would seem to be possible to come up witha kind of pornography that was meaningful and beautiful, not ugly.”

Ms. Gebbie said she was more excited to see Mr. Moore finish hisnovel “Jerusalem,” another years-long project that he estimates willtotal 750 pages when complete. “It’s his story, his heritage, hisblood ties and his amazing, wonderful system of beliefs,” Ms. Gebbiesaid. “This book for him is an unfolding of his real, deep self.”

But Mr. Moore suggested that his comic-book writing has alreadydefined his identity. He recalled an encounter with a fan who askedhim to sign a horrific issue of his 1980’s comic “The Saga of theSwamp Thing”; the admirer then disclosed that he was a specialeffects designer for the television series “CSI: NY.” “Every timeyou’ve got an ice pick going into someone’s brain, and the close-upsof the little spurting ruptured blood vessels, and that horriblesquishing sound, that’s him,” Mr. Moore said. “So that’s something Ican be proud of. This is my legacy.”